Shared Justice intern, Mary Kathryn Daigle, analyzes how PPP loan eligibility requirements that exclude returning citizens from government aid threatens their businesses and the communities they serve, and the response public justice requires.

In this interview with Chelsea Langston Bombino, Pastor Cheryl Mitchell Gaines discusses the indispensable role of community-based Black congregations and faith-based organizations in our current moment.

In this Georgia town and across the country, whether explicit or not, racism is baked into our institutions, systems, and structures. In the time since I began writing this article, it has come to light that three other Black citizens – Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Elijah McClain – were killed by law enforcement officers.

Many families rely on schools to ensure their children have access to healthy food throughout the day, but as the pandemic has forced school closures across the country, many children and teens are experiencing food insecurity.

For young men and women in juvenile detention in the midst of a pandemic, there is an acute emotional weight of experiencing the pandemic in isolation from their families and communities back home.

COVID-19 has impacted nearly every sector of society in the United States and around the world…However, one population that has been overlooked during the crisis is the men and women behind bars.

With more than 2.2 million Americans behind bars, many of us know someone who’s either doing or has done time. In my case, it’s me—and almost all males in my family.

This Mother's Day, the sacred role of mothering is taking on different shapes and forms under the strain of COVID-19. The social architecture that once supported the vocation of motherhood - from pregnancy care, to mental health providers, to houses of worship - now looks fundamentally different.

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated an unprecedented government action: a restriction of economic activity in order to preserve human life and slow the spread of the virus. As a result, individuals, families, and institutions in need of assistance will increase exponentially.

Just as individuals responsible for our food systems, energy systems, and health care play a crucial role in saving lives and sustaining our society, those who care for those who work in essential roles and their families are essential themselves. The importance of this has never been as salient as it is now.

For many Christian young adults, this may be the first time we’ve heard of an emergency relief package. While complex, it’s important to understand what its intended function is, as well as what to look for in subsequent policy proposals.

The Center for Public Justice encourages policymakers to craft policies that respond forthrightly to the twin health and economic crises by strengthening civil society and the social safety net while also preserving institutional religious freedom. This policy paper outlines a number of recommendations for policymakers to consider as they address COVID-19 in the coming days.

The very relationships and institutions that provide meaning, livelihood, connection, and joy to our lives are disrupted by COVID-19 and leave us collectively wondering: what’s next? 

In Minnesota, like thirty-three other states, payday lenders can legally offer short-term, small-dollar loans to customers. Payday loans are marketed as helpful and useful tools to address unexpected financial needs. The loans, however, are made based on the lender’s ability to collect, and not the borrower’s ability to repay, so payday loans almost always create a debt trap.

Usury has been a concern of the Church and civil society for millennia. This article outlines ten years of problems, strategies, wins, and losses in Texas as faith leaders and other concerned civic groups have fought for reasonable payday and auto-title lending reform at local, state, and federal levels.

This is an excerpt from the 2015 book “Unleashing Opportunity: Why Escaping Poverty Requires a Shared Vision of Justice”, written by Michael Gerson, Katie Thompson, and Stephanie Summers.

In 2018, a movement with faith leaders at its core known as the Financial Equity Coalition led a state-wide ballot initiative, Proposition 111 (“Prop 111”), that asked Coloradans to end predatory payday lending practices by lowering annual percentage rates from 160 percent to 36 percent. By doing so, they took on an industry earning $50 million in state yearly and followed an ancient Judeo-Christian tradition of standing against usury and all practices that enrich a few by exploiting the poor.

Payday loans are marketed and presented to the public as easy solutions to short-term financial challenges. What many borrowers do not realize until too late, is that the payday loans are easy to get into but are extremely difficult to get out of.

Ana O’Quin was a 2019 recipient of the Center for Public Justice’s Hatfield Prize. O’Quin (Baylor University ‘20) and faculty advisor Dr. Stephanie Clintonia Boddie researched food insecurity among teens in their community of Waco, Texas. Here she offers a short introduction to an excerpt of her report.